captain went to the pool, while the rest
bowed their heads with great respect. Then
the columns began to file past him. The cap
tain would touch each man on the head and
say a few words in the Cora language.
The borrados removed their clothes and
entered the pool. When they came out, they
began covering each other with a black mix
ture of mud and the soot of burned corncobs
(pages 786-7). A new personality seemed to
emerge in them as they started to leap and
yell. For the first time they directed their
attention to me. A few stones whizzed past
my head.
I felt I had to do something, so I walked
to the pool, picked up some soot and mud,
and covered my face with it. The borrados
became quite angry about my intrusion and
ordered me to leave. Then they arranged
themselves in two rows again and ran
toward the village.
OnmywaybackIfoundoneofthebo
rrados resting in the shade of a small tree.
He was about twenty years old, handsome,
and strongly built.
I asked him where he came from, and he
pointed to the east. He told me in Spanish
that his house was three days' walk away.
"My family and I come to Mesa del
Nayar every year for Holy Week," he said.
"But this is the last year I will be a borrado.
All young Coras are obligated to play this
part for five years, otherwise the Devil will
take possession of their souls. I have already
served four times.
"Now I must go and drink atole with pe
yote [he referred to a corn-meal mush mixed
with bits of the hallucinogenic peyote cac
tus]. We must dance the whole evening and
night, and it will give me strength."
As he left, he warned me:
"Be very careful with the Captain of the
Judeans. He is a wicked man."
Peyote Spurs Frenzied Running
Outside the church I noticed a small army
of boys carrying old rifles and sabers and
led by three adults. These people, I was
told, were the "Pharisees." Their ceremonial
duty was to keep order and to guard the
church against the borrados, who were even
then running around the village and through
the courtyard of the church with incredible
energy. No doubt the peyote was having
its effect.
From within the church came a strange,
monotonous music. I went in and climbed to
the choir loft, where I found two old men
and a boy playing a homemade violin, a
small drum, and a triangle.
"We must play for two days," one of them
told me, "until the heavens open up." The
phrase referred to Christ's Resurrection,
which the Indians observe on Holy Saturday.
I glanced out a window that overlooked
the courtyard and saw Father Pascual with
six Coras who wore simulated crowns of
thorns and held palm-frond scepters. These
Coras were acting as the Apostles. They
knelt with the priest in front of a small
niche that marked one of the Stations of
the Cross (pages 794-5).
Young "Jesus" Chased and Captured
Later I discovered that the borrados were
running a four-mile circuit past Stations of
the Cross outside the village. At four in the
afternoon all the borrados gathered in
the village, looking for Jesus in order to
arrest him. Jesus was portrayed by a small
boy, about 7 years old, dressed in a white
shirt and white trousers.
The borrados found the boy on the edge
of the village and started to chase him
(following pages). The boy climbed a tree
and brandished a small wooden cross, and
the borrados all fell to the ground as though
struck by lightning. Three times-in the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost-the borrados chased the boy, and
three times they fell writhing to the ground
at the sight of the cross.
The fourth time, they caught him in the
courtyard of the church, knocked him to the
ground, and tied his hands. Then the young
sters who acted as guards, the women, and
the older men assembled in a procession,
with the captive boy at its head. The group
went around the village, pausing at the Sta
tions of the Cross. The borrados kept run
ning around, jumping and yelling, and
sometimes hitting people with their spears.
When the procession reached the church
again, everyone went home except for the
borrados, who stayed up all night rushing
and screaming around the village and drink
ing atole with peyote.
Next morning, while the borrados kept up
their frenzied racing and harrying, the
church began to fill with people. The music
continued exactly as before. The Pharisees
were active, constantly changing guard.
The borrados then approached the church,
yelling and raising their spears and sabers.
789